


So I Be Written in the Book of Love

by gardnerhill



Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Challenge Response, Community: watsons_woes, Gen, Prompt Fic, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-20 21:18:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The title is a quote from Omar Khayyam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So I Be Written in the Book of Love

**Author's Note:**

> **Author's Notes:** For JWP 2013 Prompt # **20** : **Rabbit Season:** Either choose an old challenge from Watson's Woes and write an 'entry' for that challenge, or get inspiration from the [plot bunny thread](http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/5307.html). (Note: you don't have to actually pick up a whole plot bunny, but simply be inspired by something in that thread.)
> 
> Chosen: **Prompt 005** : **What if Mary Watson had died at some point other than during the Hiatus?** We see stories aplenty about the event, but since this is a H&W comm and we all want Holmes to be there for the poor Doctor anyway, this is your chance for the AU bunny to mutate to your heart's content. 1. Fics must be **at least 600 words** in length (yes, this is a more complicated challenge), but **no longer than 3,000 words**. Please use the _Challenge 005_ tag, the _warning: character death_ tag, the _warning: alternate universe_ tag, and any other warning tags that apply.

He held her hand, and into the cold claw hers had become he conveyed the warmth he could. She was grey-faced with pain, but in her eyes there was a peace.

He had feared her, at first, for what she promised to bring into John Watson’s life that he could never supply, forcing him back into his friendless solitary track. He’d spent the intervening time being grateful for her.

***

_She stood before him, every hair and stitch in place, but her anger smoked from her utterly polite voice. He considered his face duly slapped. “Do you have any idea what this cruel farce of yours has done to John? If you truly loved him, you would have told him, years ago, that you were alive.”_

_“The men I tracked down were brutal, merciless,” he responded as heatedly – she did not want coolness from him, not now. “They had no honour. I dared let no one know I lived. They would have stopped at nothing - they would have targeted John. And you.”_

_“Ah. Yes. John, whose face is ‘an open book,’ and a woman’s brainless gossip, would have murdered us all.” Contempt. “Because of course neither of us loved you enough to keep an important secret to save your life.”_

_Fear roiled in him at her words, stronger than when Watson himself had been angered at his deception._

_“When our son died in his first month of life, John nearly died too.” That same grief was set in iron on her gaze and thin mouth.  “He didn’t eat or sleep for days. Losing both of you, you see. He was sick with fear that I would join little Jamie, because ‘everyone I love dies, Mary.’ I made him eat, drugged the little food he did eat to bring sleep, and I hid his gun – I wanted neither of us to lose all our loved ones. I kept him alive even as I mourned our child – he said so himself, when he began to lift his head again.” Now the look she gave him was dismissive. “John has been a different man these past few days. You have returned, and for that I thank you. He has forgiven you. I have not, and may not for a very long time, Mr. Holmes.”_

_He nodded. “Understood, Mrs. Watson. And whether you will accept it or not, you have my undying gratitude for keeping him alive while I was gone.”_

_A curt nod, and Mary Watson turned and left the drawing room._

_***_

It had indeed taken longer for Mrs. Watson to forgive him. But forgive him she did, in time.  And he learned, in time as well, that Watson _l’homme_ was not the only Watson whose limits he could not get.

***

_He entered her lair this time. He expected the slap; he’d truly earned it and would have administered it himself. He had rarely felt more wretched, coming into her presence._

_But she smiled at him, in unfeigned pleasure. “So. The great brain has a great heart after all.”_

_He froze on the carpeting. This was not what he’d expected._

_“I’ve never seen John look so peaceful and happy over taking an injury, Sherlock. He told me what you said and did.”_

_It was worse than a slap – a thousand times worse. He hadn’t thought he could blush any more._

_“That was a great act of courage – it always is, to admit that you love someone. That is a much braver deed than coshing a man with a gun.” She beamed. “Now sit down before you fall down, my dear. John is dressing himself and swearing like a soldier over it, and he’ll be out in a minute or two. I think you can deduce where the tea things are.”_

***

Her eyes opened and focused on his. He kept her gaze, though the pain in them made him want to weep. “Is it mortal?” she said simply, her voice a thread of pain.

“It is.” This was the woman who’d set aside her own mother’s grief to nurse her husband through the loss of their child; the truth was her Bible, as it had been his throughout his life. “The cancer has spread too far for operating. They closed you and sent the telegram.”

“This will bring John home from the front,” she said.

“He is on his way even now.” He kept the rest of his thoughts behind his closed teeth.

But a ghost of a smile touched her mouth. “And I say ‘Thank God’ too.”

He lowered his eyes before that truth. There was another Book both of them had lived by for decades, and she had always seen it in him when he himself could not.

Her icy fingers moved in his. “I need not ask.”

He shook his head. “Not at all.”

Her fingers relaxed. A vestige of her old determined gaze remained on her face. “Then all I need do now, is live long enough for John to come home, so we can make our goodbyes.”

He had no doubt that she would keep that vow too, to the very hour.  



End file.
